Retiring umpire ‘Razor Ray’ Chamberlain names his favourite AFL players to interact with

Iconic AFL umpire Ray Chamberlain has announced his decision to retire at the end of the 2024 AFL season.

The 47-year-old has officiated more than 380 games since making his top-level debut in 2004 and even umpired three Grand Finals.

Across his two decades in the middle, Chamberlain interacted with countless players and some of them stood out more than most.

He picked out former Hawthorn and Sydney forward Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin as his favourite player to officiate for both his on-field exploits and his entertaining and engaging chats with umpires.

“Bud's always been my favourite,” Chamberlain told SEN Whateley.

“I just marvelled at his ability to play, but his personality on-field - which is different to who I'm sure he is as a human being and how I've found him off-field – he’d just say some funny stuff.

“He was always entertaining, always engaging.”

Other characters that Chamberlain enjoyed conversing with on-field included those that were funny, constantly nagging and even the Cornes brothers, despite neither Kane nor Chad having much going for them in terms of banter.

“Then over the journey, it's changed so much because when I started, we didn't have the match communications vests. So, as you can imagine, the dialogue took a different tone,” Chamberlain said.

“But there are so many characters, like Andrew Mackie from Geelong was just so funny. He was never derogatory to anyone but God, he was funny.

“Ben Hudson, the people's beard, he was always at me, but always funny.

“The Cornes Brothers, they needed new material. They'd roll the same stuff out (all the time).

“That's why I'm so actually staggered that Kane's so unbelievable in the media because when he was playing, it was the same crap every week like, ‘You owe us one!’. So, he’s grown and kudos to him.”

Overall, Chamberlain is grateful to have been a welcomed member of the AFL community and he says he wouldn’t change any of the experiences he’s had over the journey.

“I'm really grateful for the way the players and the clubs (treated us),” Chamberlain said.

“There's the stuff that you see postgame and everyone's emotive. But then there's the week-to-week stuff, the match day stuff and the pre-season camps.

“You bump into a bloke in a bar in New York or whatever it is … honestly, it's just been the best industry to be a part of. I would not change any of it.”

Listen to Chamberlain’s full chat with Gerard Whateley below.